YOB

A Monstrous creation by Mike at a time when he was recovering from life-saving surgery, as with most of their previous recordings, this band improves upon every release, and this record set them apart from other sludge/doom crowds.

You'll get your usual YOB attack of thick monstrous riffs, but a lot of importance was given to lyrics this time and they are a clear reflection of the state Mike was in, as the majority of it was written while he was in the hospital, the song Beauty in falling leaves opening just sets a somber beautiful mood, and that's just an example, the title track is even more epic, not going to rate individual tracks as this album is best enjoyed as a whole. Also, the album is long clocking well over 72 minutes and requires patience and features YOB's most trying yet beautiful material, makes no mistakes it's a still Doom infused with Sludge metal album, but the lyrics are filled with hope and triumph, it's an emotional journey which I recommend to anyone who likes heavy neurosis inspired music, a very underrated album of the past few years. 5/5

The chiefly British slang term YOB refers to a rowdy, aggressive or even violent young man but in the musical world of metal it refers to the Eugene, Oregon based band that was founded in 1996 by vocalist / guitarist and band leader Mike Scheidt who would undergo a few lineup changes over the two decade plus career that is still going strong. Crafting a sound that fits perfectly with the bad boy moniker, YOB has been instrumental in creating a unique fusion of the triumvirate of traditional doom, stoner and sludge metal with the extra elements of psychedelic space rock and occasional progressive elements.

After a short eponymous EP released in 2000, the band signed to 12th Records in Spokane, WA and recorded and released this debut ELABORATIONS OF CARBON which finds the trio of Mike Scheidt (vocals, guitar), Lowell Iles (bass) and Gabe Morley (drums) cranking out a stomping slo-mo stampede of metal fury that delivers an abundance of slow plodding doom ridden guitar riffs with all the peachy fuzzies of an entire orchard decked out with an interesting decorative display of creativity in action. The album contains only six tracks that stretch out just over the 70 minute mark with the monstrously long "Revolution" sneaking over the 17 minute mark and the insomnia inducing "Asleep In Samsara" which is just shy of 17. This is a band in no hurry as the members nonchalantly exhibit their miscreancy in high decibalage.

Through this parade of darkened thick doom riffs that plod along in a detuned defiance, YOB creates the ultimate paradox of hypnotic repetition and head banging uproar and includes Black Sabbath darkened doom, Neurosis infused slamming sludge and Sleep inspired stoner steadfastness. Scheidt's vocals almost sound like a higher version of Ozzy Osbourne's nasal articulations as well as some of the riffs imitating the great Tony Iommi's. Between riffing rampages however there are often slower less distorted segments that exhibit an atmosphere setting sometimes with vocals spoken or sung and sometimes just an instrumental interlude with clean echoey guitars to cleanse the palette of the grimy build up of the incessant chug-fest. Sometimes it just gets truly weird in a psychedelic haze.

While YOB is much better known for its more sophisticated albums to come, ELABORATIONS OF CARBON is nevertheless a decent beginning and although it lacks the production value of the Abstract Sounds years, it more than makes up for it in the DIY rawness of a primeval metal band getting its feet muddy in the mucky murky sludge and at this point YOB already had a firm grasp on its evolution and doesn't sound like the legions of stoner rock / metal bands that exploded onto the scene in the 90s and beyond. YOB is certainly not a technical type of band but rather provides a viscous soundscape as to get lost in even if it at times its brutality is as heavy as hell especially heard on outrageous bombastic tracks such as "Pain of I" which sounds like an early Neurosis having a hissy fit. All in all, an awesome debut that points the band in the right direction!

For The Illusion of Motion, YOB set up shop at the corner of doom metal and stoner metal. They've got enough of the former to take pleasure in some real slow, heavy riffs, but enough of the latter to put a bit of a skip in the album's step - things never slow down to an absolute, total crawl as they might do with a more funereal or po-faced doom metal release, but instead have just a pinch of the psychedelic and hard-rocking about them. This adds just enough extra energy to keep things hopping along and the ideas developing. That corner of doom and stoner I talked about is a pretty busy one, but I can recommend YOB's wares for the discerning consumer.

Offering a set of four sludgy doom metal epics (not one track less than 10 minutes), YOB's Clearing the Path to Ascend combines the gnostic spiritual themes of the likes of Om with a crushingly heavy set of riffs. This isn't a matter of brushing some leaves off the path - this is about getting a bulldozer in to clear a serious blockage.

At any particular point there's often some other influence creeping in next to the doom metal - religious music, black metal shrieks, folk-tinged post-rock, all fuse somehow with the monolithic riffs in order to provide a richer than expected experience.

Yob's sophomore outing Catharsis is an absolute beast. Heavy and thick, and persistent in it's use of crescendos to build up mood and really express the heaviness that is this record. There are only three tracks on this record but the one to look out for is Catharsis. It comes in at 23 minutes and is an absolute master of Stoner space doom. Mike Scheidt's combination of ethereal vocals mixed with guttural, angry growls will flip your idea of "death metal" style vocals. They are used sparingly and to great effect. Both styles really add to the overall ambiance of the piece itself. The guitar soars and the riffs are hammering but also display an otherworldly sense of being in the void in space. Both drums and bass are solid and mesh very well with the overall piece. This is a record that you need to let unfold before you and is well worth the effort to do so.

If their preceding album inspired me to terms like 'post-metal', 'experimental' and 'psych', Yob have very much returned to in-your-face doom-metal here, meaning 'MoR'-type Black Sabbath that gets further slowed down to a sludge pace, with nasal Ozzy-type crying and a dry, almost low-fi, garage sound reminding of Kyuss.

The sound, or rather mastering, is problematic here, this is probably the dullest sounding album I've ever heard, it's a constant drone of flat mid tones, with nothing in the lower or higher end of the spectrum. There's almost no space or dynamics in this sound at all. And that in combination with music that is also insistingly monotonous. No, it's not a winning combination. Quite a disappointment after the towering wall of sound on their preceding album.

The songwriting itself is quite satisfactory, it's back-to-basics down-to-earth doom sludge metal similar to the mentioned bands and Cathedral's early work. The droning riffs are entrancing, the vocals are vile, the mood is muddy and desolate, the intensity matches that of Neurosis. Really, all the ingredients for an excellent sludge album are here. I just wish it hadn't been mastered by someone in dire need for a hearing-aid.

'Atma' - Yob (6/10)

Doom metal. A genre dominated by crushing guitars, plodding rhythms, and a foreboding atmosphere. Such terms could begin to describe the sort of music that Yob make, a band based in Portland, Oregon. With their 2011 album 'Atma', Yob's doomy style of stoner metal is sure to please adherents of the genre, although there is not much more to the music here than is advertised. For epic, grimy doom metal rooted in the 1970's tradition, look no further.

Upon first listen to 'Atma', the closest thing I could compare Yob to would be a rawer Black Sabbath, fused with Mastodon, providing they were too busy refilling the bong water to focus on their more technical aspects. 'Atma' is a dirty-sounding, sludgy album, and filled up with throwback riffs from the time when metal was still getting up on its own two feet. The vocals start off sounding much like Ozzy Osbourne's, or even a vocalist from Mastodon; nasal and moody. As the album goes on though, Scott Kelly from the legendary post-metal act Neurosis comes in to make an appearance on two of the tracks, and his parts seem directly catered to him and the sort of music that Neurosis makes. Think the long, brooding sections of mellowness in 'The Eye Of Every Storm' and this will account for an elements of the music that Yob makes here. Barring that, Yob's heavier gears switch them into something of a retro-doom act; heavy as all hell, but fairly simplistic in its sound. This formula can be very fun and enjoyable at times, but the effect starts to wear off when the sound is drawn out much longer than feels appropriate. It is granted that a tenant of doom metal is to make drawn out compositions, but here, a little more variety or build-up in the way these songs develop would have done so much to make 'Atma' a grander experience.

'Adrift In The Ocean' is the greatest piece on the album, closing the album with more dynamic and dramatic tension than anything else on the album combined. Scott Kelly makes another cameo here, and while I don't care much for his vocals, they are used very well in the context of this style. Surely, Yob is not a band that fits into my tastes all that much; I find them a little uneventful, although the music can be very fun. There are great riffs here, and it is quite a good album, but there's not enough on 'Atma' to keep me coming back months from now.

Oregon-based doom metal act YOB have been making some of the genre's loudest, filthiest doom metal epics since their formation back in 1996, and their latest full-length outing is certainly no exception. Atma is five tracks of extremely slow and heavy doom metal, just as the genre was originally intended. Though this observation lacks significantly when it comes to variation and originality, YOB's raw and filthy attitude should certainly garner some attention within the metal community. Despite being a severely flawed album (in multiple departments), Atma may be worth an acquisition for people who still haven't gotten their fix of old school doom metal.

Stylistically, Atma is angst-ridden, sludge-induced doom metal with obvious nods in the direction of Electric Wizard, Neurosis, and Black Sabbath. Not the most original sound out there, but it can end up quite successful when done correctly. Unfortunately, Atma falls into the trap of becoming too repetitive and simplistic for its own good, often coming across as monotonous and even a bit boring. Despite the incredibly lengthy songs, most of them only have enough material to justify only a fraction of their current duration. The minimal variation between different songs makes listening to the entire album in one sitting even more of a daunting task. "Adrift in the Ocean" is really the only track that differs significantly from any others. The riffs are simply too unmemorable and generic to come even close to justifying a 55 minute playing time.

Although it may seem like I'm coming down extremely hard on Atma (which, in a sense, I am), the album isn't all bad. The musicianship, though not technically outstanding, is powerful and convincing in execution, and the production's raw and filthy sound suits the music perfectly. There are also a fair amount of high-quality riffs here, even if they still feel too drawn-out.

Atma wasn't an album that impressed me, to say the least, but YOB fanatics and die- hard doom metal fans may find more worth here than this humble reviewer. I know this album has been getting plenty of positive press attention since its release, so I must be in a slightly confused minority in this case. I just don't understand what all the fuss is about. 2 stars is the most I can give here, but check it out anyway if you think you may enjoy this one. More variation and originality will be crucial to my enjoyment, however.